i F 215 

.T7 
Copy 1 



THE SOUTH. 



^N ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BY W. L. TRENHOLM, Esq., 



ok THE i^^- ^ 



THIRD ANNIVERSARY 



OF THE 



CHARLESTON BOARD OF TRADE, 



APRIL 7, 1869. 



CHARLESTON, S. C: 
WALKER, EVANS & COGSWELL, STATIONERS AND PRINTERS. 
3 Broad and 109 Ea^t Bay Streets. 

1869. 





/aAul^ 



ex -' 



'::i 



THE SOUTH. 



^]Sr ADDRESS 
DELIVERED BY W. L. TRENHOLM, Esq., 



ON THE 



THIRD ANNIVERSARY 



OP THE 



CHARLESTON BOARD OF TRADE, 



APRIL 7, 1869. 



CHARLESTON, S. C: 
WALKER, EVANS k COGSWELL, STATIONERS AND PRINTERS, 
3 Broad and 109 East Bay Streets. 

1869. 



7- 



G 






THK SOUTH. 



Our native South, the " Land we love," finds herself in new 
and unlooked for times. Her tranquil and happy past was 
rudely broken by one of those epochs of which history is full — 
sudden revulsions in the life of a people, when that which is, 
terminates, and that which is to be begins. 

Such moments of transition, of brief revolution, are the land- 
marks of great eras ; following one upon another they are the 
giant steps by which nations mount to a higher destiny; they 
are never found upon the smooth descent which leads to degra- 
dation ; no serrated epochs jar the easy movement of the down- 
ward bound ! 

How short a time ago does it seem that with gay colors flut- 
tering in a favoring breeze, we sailed out from peace and afflu- 
ence to dare the storms of war. Adventurers into unknown 
sea-i, tempest- tossed and disheartened, we have been thrown upon 
undesired shores, and all the hopes in which we embarked have 
been shattered, and now lie stranded before our desi)onding 
eyes. 

It is not unnatural that our minds should be unsettled and 
our apprehensions excited; old oracles are sileut; |)recedents 
cannot be applied; startling phenomena in government and so- 
ciety present themselves; we feel wants tiuit we do not under- 
stand and cannot supply ; we are alarmed by portents which we 
are not able to interpret. 

To obtain a respite from these anxieties by musing on the 
past and dreaming of its restoration, has been too tempting to 
be resisted; but it is no longer permitted tons to indulge in 
dreams, nor to linger beside the old wrecks, which can never 
carry us back whence we came. We must advance to the ex- 
ploration of what lies before us, and we should advance hopefully 



and confidently, for we stand l)cf()re the large opening of a new 
world. 

Ill our former state wo had enjoyed rare tranquillity, and had 
amassed great wealth, and it is not easy for the individual losei'S 
to be reconeiled to the loss of such substantial blessings ; yet, 
looking back u})on that state and examining its characteristics 
and its tendencies, we must perceive that, as a whole, the people 
of the South were not in a healthy condition. It is capable of 
demonstration that our condition was one of intellectual and 
industrial stagnation — a state in which the mind rests upon 
axioms instead of grappling with problems, in which the scope 
of aspiration becomes inverted and the circleof enterprise is con- 
stantly growing less. Not indolent, but having the culture to 
apjn-eciate leisure, we preferred comj)etency with ease to riches 
without it. The accumulations of our ])redecessors, and the 
bounty of our soil procured us this indulgence, while the per- 
manence of our society discouraged exceptional exertion. 

In these characteristics, as well as in those more immediately 
derived from our system of labor and the isolation of plantation 
life, we had been for several generations growing unlike other 
branches of the English-speaking family, and had, in conse- 
quence, fallen into a condition of morbid exclusiveness. We 
were averse to contact with strangers ; we looked with suspi- 
cion and dislike upon immigration; we were even discouraged 
from travelling, and were beginning to turn away from current 
literature. 

We had no great questions in science or humanity to occupy 
us at home ; our concei)tions of government were confined to 
Avhat existed ; our habits of thought and feeling bound us to 
a strict construction of written law and a rigid conservatism of 
all that was old ; our simple faith would brook no scepticism as 
to the merit of what was established ; our declining tastes gave 
no stimulus to invention ; our narrowing enterprises dispensed 
with the spirit of progress. 

Well was it for the South that the voice of war roused her 
from this fatal lethargy ; seeking to avert the chance of future 
change, our own precaution was made by Providence the means 



of our rescue. By change alone could we have been brought to 
the threshold of the destiny now opening before us. 

At the epoch of the war the South had fulfilled all the possi- 
bilities of her peculiar civilization; she had reached the culmi- 
nation of her development ; she had accomplished the ends of her 
existence ; she had filled the measure of her destiny. 

It is no new thing in modern history for a people to live 
out more than one i)hase of civilization. The genius of Egyp- 
tian labor, the grace of Grecian art, the power of Roman law, the 
honor of Mediseval chivalry — had, indeed, each in turn, flowered 
and passed away, but England, France and Germany have per- 
petually renewed, in changed institutions, the vigor of their 
national life, and it is to modern, and not to ancient instances, 
that we must look for the true t3'pe of our own civilization. 

Death is the consummation, not the condemnation of life, and 
the institutions of a people, like the bodies of men, must die in 
order that the souls which animate them may live. Hence, it 
is no reproach to our past to say that it had accomplished its 
allotted days, and that its dissolution was the natural process by 
which we have emerged into a new and larger life. Looking 
back now upon the dead past of the South, we need not blush 
for it, for its life was vigorous and fruitful. It is true that long 
ago the world condemned slavery, but the world has never 
known it as we have known it, and history will yet do us justice, 
for it must record how difficult its duties were and how faithfully 
and successfully we discharged them. Haifa century before the 
war, when the slave trade ceased, the South contained less than 
a million souls of the African race; when the war occurred they 
had increased to upwards of four millions. These four million 
descendants of savages were more orderly and moral than the 
same class in any other civilized country, and they remain soup 
to the present moment, notwithstanding the temptations and pri- 
vations of the war, the license of sudden freedom and the bad 
advice of political agitators. They were deeply imbued with the 
principles of Christianity, insomuch that since emancipation they 
have cheerfully devoted their scanty earnings to the building 
and maintenance of churches and schools, and the establishment 



6 

oi'ehariUible societies; their intellcetual powers \\ere stiniuUited 
and improved as far as they logically could be in a condition of 
slavery, and were sufficiently developed to furnish a stimulus for 
continued effort, and to constitute the basis of their future self- 
improvement. 

Slavery was something more than a contrivance for consolida- 
ting labor with capital ; it was a discipline for both races, a 
school for the formation of character. As far as slavery and 
our administration of it arc amenable to moral judgment, it must 
be judged by its influence ui)on the maturity, and not by its im- 
pression upon the pupihige of those whom God placed under its 
restraints. Tlie masters as well as the slaves, the whites as well as 
the blacks, learned many noble lessons in life at this discontinued 
school. Providence and forecast for dependents, indulgence of 
the weak, and an habitual consciousness of responsibility upon 
the part of those invested with power — the obligations of honor, 
the force of character, the power of self-reliance, the sanctity of 
individual rights, the elevation of dignity above gain, of worth 
above wealth, were all acquired there and are characteristics of 
which we had a right to be proud, and to which we should still 
tenaciously cling. 

Outside our own limits we exercised an influence for good, 
the effect of which is conspicuous all over the United States. 
While New England was exploring communism and dissipating 
personal identity and responsibility, the South was perfecting the 
ideal of the individual. When the great flood of Democracy at 
the North had obliterated all venerable landmarks and levelled 
all society, the South elevated still higher her ancient families 
and historic names to point a contrast which should abash the 
levellers. When the West was all one human river, rolling ever 
over new soils and territories, retaining nothing, preserving 
nothing, but pursuing all things, until home meant a camp and 
companionship was an incumbrance, the South rested tranquilly 
within her ancient borders, inhabited still her ancestral man- 
sions, and cultivated attachment to the soil, repose and content- 
ment. 

It is not necessary to weigh the value of the contributions to 



the now harmonizing national character, which have been made 
by the different sections of our common country. Before the 
war we stood too widely opposed in all the relations of life for 
our various qualities to combine, but now the quick intellect and 
fertile invention of the East, the large aims and broad culture 
of the North, the restless spirit and boundless ambition of the 
West, the conservative tenacity and intrepid courage of the 
South, will all become interwoven and form one substantial and 
well defined American national character. 

Planted at the opposite poles of human development, the 
North at the social and the South at the individual, our contrary 
systems strained the bond of union and would have rent it 
asunder. One-half century ago the separation would have been 
inevitable, but the characteristic of the present age is unifica- 
tion. We have seen all the ancient principalities of Italy 
brought together into a single nationality; we have seen the 
great Teutonic Fatherland restored to unity and a common des- 
tiny ; we hear from afar the murmur of pan-Sclavonic aspira- 
tions ; we have seen the combined power of Europe invoked to 
keep down a little longer the unconquerable yearnings of Grecian 
consanguinity. Our late opposing sections, too, have felt the 
hand of Providence constraining us to draw closer together, and 
having in the past been severally spinning the web and the 
woof, we. are to-day uniting them in the firm texture of a com- 
mon and uniform nationality. 

At the North government and society have been approximat- 
ing the Southern type ; individuality has been emancipated 
from communism, the rank license of thought and speech has 
been restrained within the bounds of decorum, propriety has 
become more influential than extravagance, and distinction is no 
longer conferred by wealth alone. 

At the South similar and correlative changes have turned the 
current of our future development towards the Northern ideal. 
Here authority has been deprived of its prerogative, personal 
distinction is being eclipsed by representative prominence, expe- 
diency shares the influence which used to belong to sentiment 
alone, reason is more consulted than usage, inducement is used 



8 

rather than compulsion, public advantage prevails over private 
pretension. 

All the elements of character and society which formerly were 
bent in one direction arc now straining in that which is the 
opposite, and yet the one as much as the other will bear us 
onward to prosperity. When a ship, which seeks her port 
against an adverse wind with all her sails aslant, has won the 
utmost limit of her tack, and turning sharp athwart her former 
course hauls round her yards and spreads her canvas for a 
changed career, the seaman's science tells him that her progress 
is still onward; and so may we, if we look to principles and not to 
appearances, be assured that the South is moving still onward to 
the haven of her hopes — whether her prow points northwardly 
or southwardly. 

AVhile we rejoice in the assurance of general progress, we are, 
nevertheless, not all free from apprehension as to the future of 
individual interests ; we look back upon the crude communism 
of the North as we remember it in the past, and cling still more 
fondly to the protection of our ancient safeguards. This is 
natural, but it is not altogether justified by reason, for we are 
approaching their civilization from the opposite side to that at 
which they entered it ; we are moving to meet them, we are 
not following in their steps. When once these currents shall 
have mingled, their united stream cannot flow upward to the 
source of either. 

Apart from reason and interest, many of us are still held back 
by a sentiment which all must respect, but to which none ought 
to yield ; our destiny is not our own to make or mar as we 
like, but we must conform to the recpiircments of our times and 
move to the cadence of the great march of the world. 

The feudal barons built lofty towers to shield their tenants 
and their herds in lawless times, but now those empty strong- 
holds stand in picturesque decay upon the hills that look down 
on the peaceful Rhine, untenanted by man or beast, serving no 
purpose but to adorn the landscape, while on the level plains 
below a thousand humbler dwellings give the shelter and 
security of home to a more numerous and a happier people. 



9 

So it is with us. Our castled crags of individualism have 
become obsolete. He who still abides there chooses solitude and 
proud penury ; those who descend to the vineyards below will 
find liberty and prosperity, peace and companionship. 

Let none imagine that they who join this movement are doing 
any wrong to their ancestors whose effigies stand in the niches of 
the ancient walls. The institutions, the laws, the manners of 
the past, subserved their purpose and fulfilled their destiny. 
God imposed them, God has changed them. " What is man 
that he should contend with the Almighty?" In the past we 
and those who, alas, are buried with it, did our duty according 
to the requirements of our circumstances, but now other duties 
wait upon us, and different circumstances encompass us. We 
must explore our new times, discover the resources and take 
possession of the opportunities that lie before us. 

To this task we must bring courage and patience, minds un- 
fettered by prejudice, and eyes undazzled by authority ; we 
must be intrepid enough to give offence to ignorance, we must 
forget to defer to senility, we must learn to respect energy and 
to make use of youth. Let the true and the wise direct our 
counsels; let the brave and the young march in the van ; let the 
infirm and the timid follow safely in the rear. Thus and thus 
only can we advance, thus and thus only can we achieve. 

With common ends in view, and common objects to attain, 
our energies should be united, and a common sentiment should 
pervade our minds. It is easy for men to be combined under 
the constraint of authority. The influence of position, the pres- 
tige of fame, place a sceptre in the hands of distinction by which 
unthinking minds are swayed, and indolent dispositions directed. 
Such union constitutes the power of empire, it consolidates 
energy, it represses independence of thought and action, it is 
strong for conquest but weak in defence, it may win renown 
but it drives off j^rosperity. 

This is not the combination we should seek — our new con- 
dition must be a republic or it will be nothing; no single mind 
can solve its varied problems, no single character can prevail 
against its difficulties. The solid front of voluntary combina- 



10 

tion, the irresistible movoiiicnt of intelligence freely massed and 
understanding its aims, are the only forees that can avail against 
the obstacles in the way of that kind of progress which is alone 
worthy of our efforts and our aspirations. Look abroa<l upon 
the world and contrast the two systems of combination — see 
Asia stagnating and Continental Europe heaving under the 
power of empire, while England has just renewed the glory of 
her history in the last great triumph she has given to j)ublic 
opinion. The vast globe itself is not too large to be filled with 
the reverberation of England's mighty shout as the statue of 
liberty is raised above the ancient scat of unjust jjrivilege and 
oppressive prerogative. 
• Governments and all social establishments derive their sanction 
from their usefulness ; under the common law of modern civi- 
lization ea(;h may be summoned to the bar of the public o[)inion 
of the world and put upon the vindication of its existence. We 
who have learned only lately what it is to have a government 
over us, in whi(;h, for the moment, we can take no part, should 
feel the utmost interest in the sovereignty of the great public 
opinion of civilized mankind. It is the only tribunal to which 
we can appeal, the only power strong enough to protect us. 

The disabilities under which the South once stood in that high 
court are now removed; the world is growing more just to our 
])ast ; and is warndy drawn to us in sympathy for our ])resent 
condition. To-day we stand among the other civilized commu- 
nities of the world, wearing the court dress of free labor which 
the age prescribes, no longer obliged to plead our rights to 
equality and respect. 

The present age has brought all mankind very near together; 
through the rapidity of communication it has multiplied the re- 
ciprocal ties between distant communities, and has enlarged the 
interests which arc in common among widely spreading popula- 
tions. Humanity has become the prevailing passion of our 
time ; the brotherhood of man, which Christ preached eighteen 
hundred years ago, is only now being practically accepted by 
the world which crucified Him, But now the world is h.eartily 
in earnest; Christian charity has become more universal than 



11 

Christian faith, and labors of love are more abundant than 
prayers and penances. 

*We who appreciate the past history of the Southern people 
know that in the offices of humanity they were entitled to rank 
with any other community. We know that the Roman discip- 
line of the plantation was tempered with patriarchal benevo- 
lence — that subordination went hand in hand with familiar 
intimacy, and that courtesy was shown to age, however humble, 
and respect accorded to merit, even in a slave. The time must 
come when the world will do us justice in these things, and we 
should boldly claim it of the world, and not stultify our past 
and embitter our future by suffering the freedmen of the South 
to be persuaded that they have heretofore suffered wrongs at our 
hands or are likely hereafter to be defrauded of their rights by 
the restoration to power of those who are entitled to control the 
State Governments at the South. 

The obligations of honor and humanity in which our child- 
hood was educated still bind us to the African race ; they have 
still the claim upon us that weakness has upon strength, that 
ignorance has upon knowledge, that want has upon wealth. 
Their new relations to us have enlarged the area of our common 
interests. Formerly we were materially interested in their 
physical and moral well-being only, now we have a still more 
important interest in their intellectual improvement. However 
premature and hazardous we may rightly think the enfran- 
ciiiseraent of the negroes, we cannot fail to see that it is irrevo- 
cable, and since whatever dang-er there mav be, comes from their 
ignorance and not from their malevolence, it is our interest as 
well as our duty to see that their ignorance is enlighted by edu- 
cation. Education is not dependent upon schools, nor does it 
necessarily rest upon reading and writing — these are best, but 
they are not essential; and, meanwhile, until these can be 
afforded, let us lose no opportunity of advising and encouraging 
these simple people in the difficulties and pcri)]exities of their 
new responsibilities. We need not fear that the African race 
will ever impose its inferior culture upon the Caucasian — where 
Ave voluntarily abandon the field, they may walk in and occupy 



12 

it, if we should unwisely exclude them from political associatiou 
with us, and drive them back upon themselves, they will find 
leaders of their own blood or of ours, and will make their influ- 
ence felt; but if we resume the personal intercourse of the past 
with them, retain their affection and continue to deserve their 
confidence, they will not be slow to learn that what is our good 
is theirs, what brings prosperity to us brings it to them, and 
that as we are able to think better than they, so they will do 
well to listen to our counsel and support our measures. To gain 
their confidence we need uot soil our hands with intrigue nor 
stoop to become sycophants; they have been studying us all 
their lives and know when we are in earnest ; our kindly and 
sincere purposes towards them will be luost ap{)reciatcd when 
least demonstrative, and our own i)osition is sufficiently assured 
to make us absolutely free to approach them frankly, unaffectedly 
and in the open ligiit of dny. 

Such intercourse is not repugnant to our habits, it is not in- 
consistent with either the past or present relations of the two 
races, it is in harmony with the great law of Christian charity, 
and is plainly pointed out by the most practical common sense. 
Once established, it can never be again interrupted, because its 
benefits will be too much appreciated ever to be resigned. 

Let equal justice for all be once fairly established, let mistrust 
and sus{)icion be dispelled, let law be seated above politics, and 
truth and justice preferred before party, and the future of the 
South becomes assured. Then may we widen the basis of our 
prosperity, enlarge the area of our enterprise, multiply the em- 
ployments, the interests and the aspirations of our people. 

Nature has set no limit to our development; the genial soil 
of the South would nourish a very much larger population than 
that now inhabiting it; our facilities for manufacture are abun- 
dant, our mineral resources are almost untouched, our harbors and 
rivers are suflicient for all the commerce of the Atlantic, 

We need population and capital — the one will come if we 
open our doors; the other will follow if we assure it of pro- 
tection. The thirteen Southern States, excluding Maryland and 
Delaware, Mith an areaof 830,0(){)squnre miles, contained in 1860 



11,500,000 inhabitants, which is less than fourteen to the square 
mile. If all the South were as densely populated as South Caro- 
lina, it would contain nearly 24,000,000 inhabitants; if it were 
as densely peopled as New England, the number would be 
40,000,000 and over. That the population of the South did 
not increase in the same ratio as that of other parts of the United 
States, is notorious. Our northern frontier, although washed by 
the living tide which has flowed even up to the base of the Rocky 
Mountains, was almost a barrier to immigration. Between 
1850 and 1860, the foreign born population of the Northern 
States increased 2,550,000 ; that of the Southern States only 
325,000, or as eight to one; yet according to the census of 1860, 
only one acre in every seven at the South was "improved," while 
at the North one in every five was " improved." In Illinois, 
farms were worth on an average twenty dollars an acre; in 
Alabama, nine dollars an acre; yet undoubtedly at the South 
the best lands only in each State were under cultivation. 

It is trite to say that slavery was the cause of this difference, 
yet few who are ready with this explanation have considered in 
what way immigration was prevented by slavery. It has been 
customary to ascribe the hindrance to moral causes, to speak of 
the "instincts of freedom," and other supposed sentimental objec- 
tions; but such explanations are unphilosophical and untrue. 
Immigrants had certainly been taught, by the experience of 
those who had tried it, that the South was not the place for 
them, but the causes that excluded them were physical and not 
moral; they were economic and not sentimental; they arose not 
from any obloquy attaching to labor at the South, but from the 
fact that here slavery mobiliz^^d the laboring population and 
enabled it to be massed together in large force, to be rapidly 
moved from place to place and to occupy new and rich soils just 
as soon as these became accessible to immigrants. 

Under ordinary circumstances, the native population of a 
country is permanently seated; attachment to the soil and the 
ties of family retain it until its density becomes excessive, and 
emigration is embraced as the alternative to hopeless poverty. 
If such conditions had obtained at the South, or if slavery here 



14 

had iKit boon roiitoinporanoous with the extrnordinuvy flioilities 
lor transmigration whicii tiie present century has introduced, tlie 
original slave States would probably have contained to-day the 
eleven millions which constitute the Southern ])opulation, and 
European immigration would long since have tilled up all the 
rest of our present territory. But when the whole intelligence 
of the South was intent upon discovering tlie best and richest 
soils, when its whole capital was available for their acquisition 
and its whole laboring population ready to occupy them, the 
immigrant found himself at a hopelass disadvantage. Without 
capital or credit, he came in competition with the master of many 
slaves, and found the best soils preoccupied ; being alone he 
earned less and spent more in living than the slave, for com- 
bination augments production and economizes consumption. 

The mobility of our laboring population not only excluded 
immigrants from our new territory and prematurely diminished 
the laboring population of the older States, but in these the 
slaves became massed together as the competition of the West 
came to be more and more felt. Thus profitable planting re- 
quired large capital and small proprietors were at a disadvantage. 
Free labor was too expensive for both laborer and employer, 
hence many were forced to emigrate; and so extensive was this 
emigration that the census of 1860 showed that of the white 
persons then living in the United States, who had been born in 
South Carolina, 277,000 only remained at home, while 193,000 
were permanently settled in other States. North Carolina re- 
tained 634,000 and had parted with 272,000. Virginia retained 
1,000,000 and had sent off 400,000 of her native white popula- 
tion. 

The same cause practically prohibited manufactures, because 
manufactures even more than agriculture depend upon fixity 
of population. Cheapness of living, uniformity and regularity 
in the supply of the necessaries of life, are conditions which 
must be in existence in every locality before manufacturing 
becomes possible there. These conditions cannot obtain where 
population is shifting, nor will capital consent to permanent in- 
vestment where values fiuctnate with the movements of nomadic 
labor. 



15 

With the extinction of slavery, the South presents to immi- 
gration an entirely different aspect. Our native population, no 
longer migratory, is already beginning to find the country too 
large, and to conjecture how immigration can be reconciled with 
conservatism. Our foreign-born citizens, few in number, but 
intelligent and prosperous, are earnestly and actively engaged in 
inviting their countrymen to try their fortunes here, while the 
attitude towards immigration assumed by our newly enfranchised 
classes, reflects infinite credit alike ypon their good sense and 
their patriotism, and entitles them to participate throughout the 
future in the benefits of a broad and liberal public policy. 

Let us everywhere at the South yield to this impulse of the 
times. The great popular mind has fastened upon immigration 
as the foremost measure of the day. Its ultimate triumph 
admits of no question, and yet, in many a private circle, in 
many an ancient coterie, doubts and apprehensions are still 
entertained. Many an empty privilege — many a useless cus- 
tom — the lumbering rubbish which collects in old communities — 
may be borne away upon this vigorous flood. Some venerable 
and worthy relics, too, may be lost; but it is better to lose the 
relics of antiquity than to make no bequests to posterity. The 
past did its duty and is dead; but we live upon its works. Let 
us likewise do our duty, that our children may in turn live upon 
ours. 

Fling wide your doors to immigration and compel them to 
come in — not barbarians, to be beasts of burden, but intelligent, 
thrifty, liberty-loving men, and healthy, industrious and virtuous 
women. Welcome all alike, whether they be laborers or capi- 
talists, artisans or merchants. Establish just laws, and watch 
jealously over their impartial administration; see that labor is 
assured of its earnings; that property is made sacred; that 
wealth is effectually guarded against public and private assault. 
Let the inviolability of the person and the sanctity of human 
life receive the most impressive sanction of our courts; let the 
public peace be maintained with the truncheon of the policeman 
and not the bayonet of the soldier; let the public expenditures 
be directed to the ends of good government, and not to the 
nourishment of party. 



IG 

Long before these tilings are all accomplished, before even we 
shall all be of the same mind as to their merit, the tide of im- 
migration will be ni)on us. Our soil is too accessible and too 
fertile, and our climate too pleasant and healthful to be passed 
by for the distant and inhospitable regions where alone public 
lauds are still offered to the immigrant. 

Agriculture in the South presents now greater inducements 
to the farmer than to the planter, science and mechanical in- 
vention are more effective than muscular force, varied pro- 
duction is more lucrative than the culture of a single staple. 
The immigrant Avill find his intelligence appreciated, his skill 
available, his thrift profitable; our population will become fixed, 
living will be cheaper, manufactures will be possible, trade will 
become more active and more ramified, our country towns will 
grow, our cities will be multiplied and will become more popu- 
lous. Occupation and opportunity will be found for all; native 
talent and industry will have freer scope and larger reward than 
ever before, while new-comers will be no longer feared as rivals, 
but welcomed as allies. 

The dense populations of the Eastern and Middle States can 
spare us a large number of immigrants, whose education, enter- 
prise and capital will be of vast consequence to our early pros- 
perity. The inducements the South holds out to this class are 
sufficient to bring them without other invitation, but the people 
of the South owe it to themselves to meet the first-comers in a 
manly spirit. Jt would be unworthy of us to take a mercenary 
view of such a question, and hence I say nothing of expediency ; 
but it is becoming in us, because it is manly and generous, to 
give a frank and honest welcome to those who are personally 
worthy of it, whether they were with us or against us in the 
past. After the Hevolution, the fratricidal passion which had ar- 
rayed Whig against Tory, was banished from the heroic breasts of 
victors and vanquished alike; and we who have so conspicuously 
imitated the courage of our ancestors, need not be ashamed of 
emulating their generosity. 

The advent of strangers, however welcome they may be, can- 
not fail to have the effect of drawing closer together all the 
classes of our native and old adopted population. There is 



17 

something in old associations which cannot be entirely expelled 
from the human breast, and we shall all stand more firmly- 
together when in the presence of those who do not share in our 
memories of the past. With ranks recruited, energies refreshed, 
hopes elated, we of the South may move forward to the occupa- 
tion of our future with the assurance which reason gives to those 
who are provided with the means to command success. In 
that future the South will find a destiny which to us who 
must bear the burdens of the march, is not yet revealed in all 
its fulness — but we already see enough to incite us to advance 
with energy and intrepidity. Great effort and great sacrifice 
will be demanded of us ; the sacrifice must be individual, but 
the effort must be in common. He who is conscious of being 
worthy to be a leader must be content to take a place in the ranks ; 
he who is ambitious of being the first to scale the wall must 
abide by the wagons if need be; he who loves solitude must be 
ready to rush into the thickest of the fray. Thus will personal 
sacrifice minister to public advantage, and the common good will 
grow by common effort. 

Let us array ourselves in a panoply of enthusiasm — proof 
against the {)etty darts of prejudice and affectation — and, shoulder 
to shoulder, bear down the barriers of ignorance and obstruction ; 
we need no leaders, but we will find representative men ; we need 
no crowned authority, but we will stand under the free banners 
of Public Opinion — the ruler of the world, the arbiter of the 
destinies of nations. Public opinion is the Melchisidech of our 
age, receiving tribute from all mankind, allowing empire or 
conducting revolution, anointed of God, the King of Peace. 
Within the limits of its wide influence no wrong can stand un- 
condemned, no lie can remain unrebuked, but truth, however 
homely, is made honorable — rights, however humble, are exalted 
to power. There the human mind is free, no antique usage nor 
obsolete tradition fetters human speech, for public opinion can live 
only in the atmosphere of liberty; it is the spirit of truth, the in- 
terpreter of revelation — the only vox populi vox del When 
tiiought and speech are not free from prejudice and fashion, from 
the domination of party or the dictation of caucus, that which 
calls itself public opinion is a usurper ; for when the mind is not 
9 



18 

free Tniili is iin])vis()iic»l in her own citailcl and lior standard 
still floating above the outer wall, becomes the enil)leni of suc- 
cessful falsehood. 

To establish among us forever the true and the right, it is 
only necessary that every man should assert absolute inde- 
pendence of thought and speech, and accord the same to every 
other man. This is no easy task ; it devolves especially upon 
the young and the brave, the honest-hearted and the humble- 
minded, for liberty does not come of pride, but of humility ; 
not of strength, but of courage ; not of experience, but of as- 
piration. Upon all sides there is work to be done, error to be 
exposed, truth to be illustrated. In our courthouses and work- 
shops, upon the marts of commerce, in the fields of agriculture, 
wherever men are called to labor with the arm or the brain, 
we need clear heads, strong hearts, steady hands — not to dictate 
but to enlighten ; not to lead, but to encourage ; not to control, 
but to point out. Thus and thus only will our whole popula- 
tion advance in harmony and with unity of purpose. A peo- 
ple so moved and being in unison with the great prevailing 
principle of their times, acquire a momentum in the direction of 
greatness which is irresistible. 

The greatness of a people is not measured in modern times 
by the altitude of one class above another, but by the common 
elevation of the whole. Raise high your highest, but leave not 
the lowly low ; let merit be exalted, let intelligence soar among 
the clouds, but leave no human being to struggle alone with the 
degradation that drags hira still downward, leave none in the 
darkness of ignorance, deny to none the warmth of sympathy, 
and above all heap no contumely on the head of the humblest 
aspirant for honor and position. Thus will all unite in building 
up a glorious future, where all may dwell in happiness and honor, 
and where our public greatness will be a perpetual Tc Deum ; 
for there is a grand harmony in the mingling emotions of a free 
community ; when the solemn ground-tone of earnest masses, 
the vast swell of pervading enthusiasm, the whole diapason of 
Imman aspirations, pour their united torrent upward and fill 
the ear of Heaven with man's great laborare est orare, while 
j)ure and clear as the treble of a silver bugle the dominating idea 
of the epoch gives articulate language to the tumultuous concord. 



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